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Concrete Decor - Concrete Decor Magazine, The Journal for Decorative Concrete - Index

Concrete House
Withstands
Devastating Flood
As fl oodwaters in southwest Washington
submerged entire Chehalis neighborhoods early
December, Justin Farley and Kevin Winkler waved
down a team of U.S. Coast Guard rescuers to help a
family of fi ve who had abandoned their home. Farley
and Winkler, however, stayed put.
“It’s almost reminiscent of Mount St. Helens,”
Farley says the next day. “It’s just a big, brown
mess.” He says the mud surrounding their concrete
home is about a foot thick.
However, despite some muck in the garage,
the concrete house remained rock solid while his
neighbors in stick-built homes did not fare so well.
Farley estimated that 10 houses in his immediate
area in the Boistfort Valley suffered severe water
damage: fi ve looked to be destroyed, and all the
mobile homes were washed away. Floodwater, in
some cases, reached the roofl ines. One morning, the
area looked like a brown ocean fi lled with fl oating
debris.
The fl ood, which hit Dec. 3 and 4, forced
hundreds of people to fl ee when the river crested
at almost 10 feet over fl ood stage. Long stretches
of Interstate 5 were under up to 7 feet of water, the
Seattle Times reported.
“We’re doing OK here for two reasons,” Farley
says. “One is that we built above the 100-year fl ood
plain.” The other, he says, is that the home is built on
a slab, “an excellent footing and foundation for the
house.”
If the fl oodwaters had entered the house, it
would have been far easier to clean up, he says, as all
the fl ooring is concrete and could have been hosed
down. The exterior walls, also made of concrete,
could have withstood the water as well.
The way the house survived the fl ood is another
testament to the durability of ICF construction, Farley
says. Even when rescuers arrived, “I felt comfortable
enough to stay here.”
Dec. ’07/Jan. ’08 | www.ConcreteDecor.net | 89